Nick Murphy

When New York–based Australian producer and musician Nick Murphy plays Observatory North Park on October 21, he’ll showcase tunes from his new Missing Link EP, described in a press release as “bridging the sonic shift between Chet Faker and Nick Murphy.” Now going by his given name, Murphy says “Chet Faker was me trying to prove something to myself. But my tastes are pretty dynamic, and I realized I’ve spent time resisting that. Now I want to put everything in. It’s not conceptual anymore. It’s just me…it feels like a rediscovery.” Judging from the first two “just me” singles, “Fear Less” and “Stop Me (Stop You),” it’s not as big a rediscovery from Faker to Murphy as, say, Garth Brooks vs. Chris Gaines, or David Johansen as Buster Poindexter. More remodel than rediscovery (think Johnny Cougar compared to John Mellencamp), it’s less of a new ride than the old car with a new coat of paint. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.